…or ‘The Mother of All Teasers’.

Yes, this is ANOTHER teaser post.

Well, sorta.

I just wanted to post up quick note to inform everyone that I am officially on leave (yes, unbelievable BUT true! I’m on a much needed break. Wheeee!! :D).

I’m out of KL till January 1, 2009 and while my mobile will not be turned on, I’ll still be replying to emails every other day.

A belated Merry Christmas wish to everyone out there Here’s to an awesome New Year ahead for all of us.

See you all next year and do drop by the blog to check out more pictures from the sessions below :) 

Hugs

Jullian & Marie’s Fun KK Reception

The Tan’s relaxed family portraits at the park

David & Laura’s pre-wedding session

Devi & Herman’s solemnisation

Caroline’s family portrait session

Johan & Alia’s solemnisation

Kat & Sern’s tea ceremony & reception

And why in the world are they both so happy and why she’s pointing at me? Find out more soon!

Cover pic of the Malaysian edition of Men’s Health (Dec 08), shot by one of BluInc’s inhouse photogs.

No, no. That’s NOT me! :p Hehe…

It’s Jonathan Wong, one of the founders of Pushmore Fitness Centre. He’s on the cover of December issue of Men’s Health, which coincidentally is also the issue which contains some pics I shot recently. Congrats to JW on appearing on the cover of MH!

So, when I said I’m in Men’s Health, I didn’t mean literally, just some pictures that I shot. Hehe…

Much thanks to Eric and Kenneth for giving me the opportunity to shoot for the mag! Here are digicam shots of part of the spread in the magazine.

On a separate note, I’ve got a few blog posts lined up with pictures from my recent wedding shoots in Kota Kinabalu as well as couple portraiture sessions in Kuala Lumpur.

Looking forward to posting them up soon, but my plates full at the mo as I’ve been working (and working out :p) round the clock on completing a few sets of photos before the holiday season arrives.

The blog posts will have to wait for a lil while more Hopefully by early next week *fingers crossed*. Nevertheless, thanks for dropping by and do swing by next week to check out the new pics ya?

Hugs

I just got back from a wonderful trip back to KK and shot Terence and Nicole’s awesome wedding (and uber fun reception!) as well as Jullian and Marie’s pre-wedding photos. Prior to the KK trip, I had the pleasure of shooting my ex-schoolmate’s (Steph!) ROM in Putrajaya. Woot!

I would so love to blog about the shoots right at this very moment. Alas, time is not on my side for now I need to pack cos I’m moving AGAIN! Pengsan dot com.

And I’ll also be shooting from Fri till Sunday hence, I won’t be blogging for the next couple of days. Well, not till I get all my stuff together anyway. So many things to pack, so little time. Eeks.

On the bright side, there’ll be a swimming pool at the apartment where my housemates and I will be moving to. Which means I can add swimming to my training regime. Yay! *bounces around with joy*

Here’s a lil sneak peek on what’s to come soon. Swing by this lil blog of mine sometime next week to check out the full versions k? Have an awesome week ahead X

Yes, I know I’m supposed to be posting up the pics from the 2 awesome wedding receptions which I shot recently, but I’m having a hard time picking my fave pics :p Eeks! I so so am gonna finalise my selection by next week!

In the meantime, I’ll just share some fun shots I took earlier today during an impromptu photo outing I had with my young friends - Sherrie, Bang Qin and Nee On

Yes, the above shot is not sharp, but I likeeee! ;p

We decided to go for a pre-Merdeka photo outing after I finished a couple portraiture session in the morning. Initially we were a bit peeved off because it started raining right when we decided to go.

But glory be, the rain stopped while we were deciding whether or not to just go on with the outing

The weather turned out to be absolutely glorious - sunny day, blue skies (I’m serious - blue, pure blue with no haze!) and ridiculously gorgeous lighting. We were all gushing over the flares that we got from the sun. It was every photographer’s wet dream I tell you!

We took the LRT to Pasar Seni and checked out The Annexe where they had the Rantai-art Merdeka Exhibition. I bought some crafts from the Gerai OA and also an awesome print of a kitten shot (the pussy pic in the pic below :D) by a fantabulous flickr photographer Futuna. Check out her cool shots on the link ya

We then walked on to Padang Merdeka where we refined the art of loitering (kutu lepak siot ;p) and I took shots of the young ones while they took shots of goodness knows what :p

Nice arrr pose like tourists? LOL!

Yes, as you can see from the pics, I’m not much of a street photographer. I’ve got this thing about shooting strangers, it feels like I’m invading their privacy (I shy worrrr :p) So most of my shots were of the young ones. Hehehe…

I admit that I am one of the lucky ones who get to do what I love for a living, but going out for a casual photo outing where no one had any expectations of me actually revved me up to look at things in a fresher way. Funny eh?

On another note, as cliche as it sounds, despite whatever’s happening to the current state of the Govt (banning Malaysiakini? think we idiots arrr??), I still love Malaysia - for all it’s faults, there’s just too many great things about the country for me to even think about migrating elsewhere.

Okay lah, enough of my rambling ons. I won’t be working on Sunday (I’m going climbing! Wheeeee!) so I just wanted to wish y’all a Happy National Day and ‘Selamat Berpuasa’ to my Muslim friends & clients.

Have an awesome long weekend ahead wherever you may be

Above shot by Nee On

Will be back next week with the promised blog posts Woot!

Yes, o’dear friends who still drop by this blog of mine.

I’m still alive and well.

Been tied up the past couple of days with shoots, editing batches (and batches!) of pictures, finalising layouts for photobooks, meeting up with some corporate clients and just trying to squeeze in some ‘me’ time by working out at the gym.

Yes, I would’ve had time to blog if I didn’t go work out. But for me to sacrifice working out just so that I can blog?! Sacrilegious!

There’s actually tons and tons of stuff I wanna blog about! But, but I’m just knackered by this time of the night that for now, I’ll just post up a lil preview of what’s to come.

A fun, fun wedding of an awesome couple! This one’s gonna be a biiiig post

A family shoot with the cutest grandparents ever! Aaaanddd, a reunion/climbing session at Summit Climbing Gym.

An awesome maternity session - tho I’m not sure whether or not I can post up some of the pics cos I haven’t asked the hot mama yet ;p 

Besides the above, I’ll have a family portrait session this coming weekend so stay tuned cause once I get my groove back, I’ll be blogging with a vengeance (ya, ya call me drama queen if you will :p)

On a quick note, for couples who are getting married soon, do check out the upcoming Signature Photographers talk which is happening on August 10 (this Sunday). Fellow photographers (and my friends :D) Louis Pang and Jenny Sun are part of the group and they’ll be giving out talks on that day as well. For more details, check out Louis’ or Jenny’s blog.

As for me, I’ll be running (or more likely, walking :p) 10km (eeks!) this Sunday morning during the adidas King of The Road event in Shah Alam AND climbing at the final Summit Roxx Climbing Competition in Summit Climbing Gym straight after.

Frankly speaking, I have no idea what I was thinking when I registered for both of these events. Yoiks!

Wish me luck peeps!

A couple of months ago, I was assigned by the Malaysian Men’s Health magazine to shoot some pictures of Francis for the rock climbing feature story. Francis is one of Malaysia’s top rock climber and he’s also the first person in the country to be a certified route setter for international sport climbing competitions.

When I received the call from Kenneth to shoot for a feature story on climbing, I was flabbergasted. Being paid to climb AND shoot? No wayyyy.

It was a sunny day when we had the shoot and headed off to Damai area in Batu Caves for the session. Tong set up the route and I top roped it while carrying my camera equipment in a sling bag.

While I was climbing halfway up, Tong shouted up at me, “Aiya Anna, you should’ve told me you were carrying your gear up. I would’ve helped you hang it up there instead”. Gee, how helpful of him to tell me while I was already halfway up with all my gear :p Hehe…

Here’s a shot of the feature story which is in this month’s Men’s Health. The one below was shot with my camera phone, hence the low quality (yea, yea blame it on the phone ;p). For a clearer view of the article, check out the July 2008 issue of Men’s Health.

And here’s one of my favourite shot which didn’t make the final cut for the magazine. Notice the blue patch at the background? That’s where Tong was belaying Francis from.

I was suspended nearly 25 metres off the ground for about 20 minutes as I asked Francis to take his time since I wanted to take as many shots as possible and throughout the whole time, I just thought “Life is bliss”

To the Men’s Health team, thanks for giving me the opportunity to work with you guys! Much, much appreciated!

It’s time for a celebration, woot!

Yes, I just had to post up this picture of me with my standard ‘fly trap’ expression shot by Sherrie :p

Well, not yet BUT in another month’s time, Anna-Rina Photography will be 1-year’s old.

Yup! August 23, 2007 is THE date that I took the leap into full-time photography and never looked back Wheeeeee!

To celebrate, from now till August 23, 2008 any confirmed bookings which I receive for 2009 will get to enjoy the 2008 rates. Rates for 2009 will be applicable for bookings taken in after that.

Aaaaannddd, for portrait sessions done during weekdays, you’ll enjoy a special weekday rate which is a significant discount from my standard portrait rates.

To find out more, just drop me an email at info(at)anna-rina(dot)com. Spread the word

Cheerio!

Some friends have asked me how I get my pictures to look the way they do - the slightly saturated colors, the bright lighting, the vignetting on the sides,etc.

While it is important to get all your settings, compositions and what-nots correct IN camera, I believe that post processing helps in enhancing pictures.It won’t be possible for me to get my pictures to look the way I want them to look straight out of the camera. I like my pictures to be slightly punchier in terms of color. I looooveeeeee colors!

Truth be told, I spend a looooootttt of time on post processing. On an average, after shooting a full day wedding, I’ll be spending a couple of days after that just on editing these pics (and that’s not including designing the photobook layouts).

I do bulk post-processing of my pics through Adobe Lightroom (currently trying out the Beta version of LR2) and I also use Adobe CS3 for the more detailed editing - clearing off spots and wrinkles, cloning out stray hairs, removing that unwanted fire hydrant or the annoying relative (I kid, I kiiiid) from the background, etc.

There are free trials for Lightroom (interface as above) and CS3 on the Adobe website. Once the trial period has ended, you have the option of purchasing both these softwares online. Definitely something I would recommend

Besides that, for selected pictures I also use action packs like Totally Rad Actions and Kubota Image Tools for that extra ‘umph!’.

Yes, some might say that they’re really pricey but ever since purchasing these actions, I’ve managed to save a lil bit more time on post-processing and that in turn, enables me to have more fun doing what I love to do - take pictures. Wheeee!

There are also tons of other actions and borders (complimentary ones!) which are available online, one just needs to take some time to google and download these to experiment with.

To find the above mentioned softwares and action packs online, just google the names mentioned and walla! You’ll have the link to the respective sites Google rocks ma world!

Hope that helps. Have an awesome weekend ahead!

Just a quick post to let you know what I’ve been up to for the past 1.5 days - attending Louis Pang’s workshop!

I don’t have much time to blog about it now as I wanna hit the sack and catch some winks since we’ve got a loooong day tomorrow at the final part of the workshop.

There’s a few emails which I have yet to revert to- will definitely do so on Monday once the workshop is wrapped up. I’ll also try to update my blog and write a review on the workshop by end of next week *fingers crossed*

In the meantime, here are some ‘behind-the-scenes’ snapshots from earlier today.

On left: Louis - the energetic trainer for the weekend

Kee Sitt of the Wedding Story team documenting the workshop on video

Imagine having to snog infront of so many photographers. Pressure wei :p

A month ago I shot an advertorial for 3C magazine.

It wasn’t my first advertorial shoot, but it was the first time that I had the opportunity to go on the KL Hop On Hop Off bus.

And boy, was it fun!

We were on the bus for nearly 2 hours going round the main sights of KL and it was nice to see KL in a leisurely manner instead of looking at it while being stuck in the traffic jam.

Definitely something I would recommend to those who are visiting KL

I think the magazine’s out already (though I haven’t bought a copy - YET), will scan it once I get a copy and update this blog post then.

In the meantime here are some of the shots taken throughout the session.

The first few pics were shot at the Pavilion. We got kicked out after the first few shots. Dammit.

In the bus. It was a weekday and most of the tourists would get off at each tourist sight and we would just stay on the bus to take pics. The driver must’ve been wondering WTF?

Yes, obviously it was for Toshiba. Anyone from Toshiba reading this? Wanna give me a free laptop for the pics :D?

At the Eye On Malaysia, which is also known as the White Elephant of Malaysia in certain circles.

If you’re wondering why in the world would people bring their laptops onto a bus, well darling, FYI, the KL Hop On Hop Off has free wi-fi on board. I kid you not. I even went online for a bout 5 minutes to check my email while we were taking a break :p 

I was absolutely knackered by the end of the shoot but had tons of fun with the team from 3C and also the 2 models who are also local talents (songwriter, singer, host).

Ryan, thanks again for the opportunity to shoot for the mag Woot!